HolocaustPoetry

Never Shall I Forget media type="file" key="never.mp3" Never shall I forget that night, the first night in the camp which has turned my life in to one long night seven times cursed and seven times sealed.

Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children whose bodies I saw turned to wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky.

Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith for ever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live.

Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust.

Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself.

Never

-Elie Wiesel

Response Questions: Why will the speaker never forget these images? 1. What is the poem about? 2. Why will the speaker never forget these images? 3. What is the mood of the poem and why? 4. In your opinion, which lines are most powerful and why? 5.What is being repeated and how does repetition emphasize the speaker’s message? 6. Underline and label as many literary elements as you can.

I Keep Forgetting media type="file" key="poetry test2.mp3"

I keep forgetting the facts and the statistics and each time I need to know them

I look up books these book line twelve shelves in my room

I know where to go to confirm the fact that in Warsaw Ghetto there were 7.2 people per room

I forget over and over again that one third of Warsaw was Jewish

and in the ghetto they crammed 500,000 Jews into 2.4 percent of the area of the city

and how many bodies they were burning in Auschwitz at the peak of their production

twelve thousand a day I have to check and re-check

and did I dream that at 4pm on the 19th January 58,000 emaciated inmates were marched out of Auschwitz

was I right to remember that in Bergen Belsen from the 4th-13th of April 1945 28,000 Jews arrived from other camps

I can remember hundreds and hundreds of phone numbers

phone numbers I haven't phoned for twenty years are readily accessible

and I can remember what someone's wife said to someone else’s husband

what a good memory you have people tell me

-Lily Brett

Response Questions: 1. What does the poem seem to be about? 2. What is the speaker’s mood and what words show that? 3. In your opinion, what is the most powerful image and why? 4. In the last stanza, what does she mean when she says "you have a good memory people tell me." 5. How are the stats presented in a poetic way? 6. Underline and label as many literary elements as you can.